Commuters watch as a train enters the 40th St-Lowry St Station, where a man was killed after being pushed onto the subway tracks, in the Queens section of New York, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. Police are searching for a woman suspected of pushing the man and released surveillance video Friday of her running away from the station.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A suspect told police she shoved a man to his death off a subway platform into the path of a train because she has hated Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, prosecutors said.

The woman, Erika Menendez, was charged Saturday with murder as a hate crime.

Sunando Sen was crushed by a 7 train in Queens on Thursday night, the second time this month a commuter has died in such a nightmarish fashion.

Menendez, 31, was awaiting arraignment on the charge Saturday night, District Attorney Richard Brown said. She could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Menendez was arrested after a tip by a passer-by who saw her on a street and thought she resembled the woman in a surveillance video released by police. She admitted shoving Sen, authorities said.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers," Menendez told police, according to the district attorney's office.

Sen was from India, but police said it's unclear if he was Muslim or Hindu. The 46-year-old lived in Queens and ran a printing shop. He was shoved from an elevated platform on the 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens. Witnesses said a muttering woman pushed him on the tracks as a train entered the station and then ran off.

The two had never met before, authorities said, and witnesses told police they hadn't interacted on the platform.

On Dec. 3, another man was pushed to his death in a Times Square subway station. A homeless man was arrested and charged with murder in that case. He claimed he acted in self-defense and is awaiting trial.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday urged residents to keep Sen's death in perspective as he touted new historic lows in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.

"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," Bloomberg said.